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Affordable Ways to Create Festive Layouts

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Yesterday we received our first Christmas card of the season in the mail.

Given that I have yet to even choose a family photo for our holiday greeting, receiving my friend’s annual newsletter was bittersweet to say the least.

Still, I refuse to let her superior organizational skills get me down. Rather, I lovingly placed her Christmas card in a decorative holder in the shape of Santa’s sleigh where it will remain until I cut it up and use the pretty printed images in my holiday scrapbook.

If you are looking for cheap and easy ways to add some festive nuances to your Christmas-themed scrapbook layouts, consider saving cards that are too gorgeous to toss. I clip stunning images, such as ornaments or snowy scenes and use them as extra embellishments.

Another affordable way to add a splash of seasonal charm to your holiday-themed page designs is to recycle all those Christmas art projects your kids bring home from school this time of year. My 7-year-old has already hauled home more than a dozen painted pictures depicting her favorite holiday items. Instead of pitching them, I plan to add a few to my layouts.

If you are really frugal, then hold tight to leftover wrapping paper. Or, be extra careful unwrapping gifts, so you can reuse the paper as borders, backgrounds or frames in your holiday layouts. Depending on the quality, color and pattern of your paper, you could further embellish it with chalk or colored pencil. Another festive idea is to mix alphabet rubber stamps with letter charms, stickers, and other embellishments to make an eye-popping page title on light-colored wrapping paper. Last year I repurposed white and silver Christmas wrapping paper by repeating holiday-themed quotes several times in a black ink to make custom patterned paper for my scrapbook layout.

About Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin.
Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism. She spent the next ten years as a television anchor and reporter at various stations throughout the country (from the CBS affiliate in Honolulu to the NBC affiliate in Green Bay). She has won numerous honors including an Emmy Award and multiple Edward R. Murrow awards honoring outstanding achievements in broadcast journalism. In addition, she has received awards from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association for her reports on air travel and the Wisconsin Education Association Council for her stories on education. Michele has since left television to concentrate on being a mom and freelance writer.